The 2026 ESPY Awards air Wednesday night, and the Best Fighter race has already put Terence Crawford in the spotlight after his win over Canelo Alvarez last fall. The show starts at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and the App, with Marcello Hernández hosting live from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City.
That is why fans searching Canelo Alvarez Vs Terence Crawford are landing on this race now: Crawford is one of four Best Fighter nominees, alongside Justin Gaethje, Claressa Shields and Gabriela Fundora. He is the fighter tied to the most prominent recent boxing result in the field, while Gaethje enters with the betting and prediction edge, which makes the vote feel less settled than the trophy usually does before airtime.
Fans helped choose the nominees, so the category is not just a recap of recent results; it is also a snapshot of which performances drew the most attention. Crawford, now retired, unified the super middleweight titles by beating Alvarez, while Gaethje beat Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 before destroying Ilia Topuria at UFC White House. Shields and Fundora both reached 18-0 after two wins apiece, giving the category a mix of boxing dominance and UFC momentum.
The friction is that the favorite on paper is not the nominee with the biggest boxing signature victory. Gaethje has the numbers advantage in betting and prediction circles, but Crawford’s name is attached to the kind of win that usually defines an awards field. That leaves the Best Fighter outcome hanging on how the fans’ vote lines up with the performances they valued most.
The awards will replay on Thursday, July 16 on Disney+, Hulu, the App and ABC Video on Demand, so anyone who misses the live broadcast will not have to wait long to see which fighter takes it. By the time the replay is available, the question will already be answered, and the result will tell whether the year’s loudest combat-sports statement came from boxing or from the cage.
